Steve Wilks' Cardinals are the worst team in the NFL

There was plenty of speculation heading into Thursday night's game that Denver Broncos coach Joseph Vance's job was on the line. Maybe we were focused on the wrong coach.

Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks has coached seven career games. That's not enough to make a judgment on anyone. But this much is clear: Absolutely nothing in these seven Cardinals games has been positive.

If there was any doubt the Cardinals were the NFL's worst team, they were able to rest on Thursday night with an embarrassing 45-10 loss to the Broncos. At least they are down to a good start for most of the Sox-Astros ALCS game. Cardinals rookie quarterback Josh Rosen threw two pick-sixes in the first quarter, and it never got better. Von Miller said this week, "We're going to kick their ass." He must have said it right after watching the Cardinals.

The Cardinals were 8-8 last season, and that was David Johnson for nearly the entire season. They were not good, but nowhere close to this bad. They would have been normal if Cardinals fans are worried that Wilks might have been a bad hire.

<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = ""I would say that we are in jeopardy, including mine, if we do not win," Wilks said earlier this week, long before his team had the worst performance of this NFL season.
"data-reactid =" 20 ">"I would say that we are in jeopardy, including mine, if we do not win," Wilks said earlier this week, long before his team had the worst performance of this NFL season.

The Cardinals were woefully unprepared

The Cardinals looked unprepared from the first minute of the game. Josh Rosen had a call to timeout. As Fox analyst Troy Aikman pointed out, teams script their first 10-15 plays. They presumably practiced them. To come out and not know what to do on the second play of the game was a horrible look. Then Rosen threw a pick-six the next play.

The Cardinals did not do anything right in the first half, which ended with the Broncos holding a 35-3 lead. The offensive line did not protect Rosen. There was another dud of a half by Johnson, who was an All-Pro two years ago with a different coaching staff. Sanders scored on a 64-yard touchdown in which there was a complete miscommunication by the defense and Sanders was running all alone in the deep middle. Before that, Arizona was fooled by a trick play and Sanders threw a touchdown. The Cardinals Offense Had to Burn Another Timeout to Avoid a Delay of Game, and Did Take a Delay of Game in the First Half.

If there was a checklist for an unprepared, poorly coached team, the Cardinals marked off every box in one half.

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Cardinals have been bad all season

It's not like Thursday night was just a strange, bad night for the Cardinals. Their whole season has been ugly.

The team decided to go with the underwrought veteran Sam Bradford at quarterback to start the season, and he was terrible. Wilks said he never considered pulling Bradford for Rosen in a 34-0 week 2 loss to the Rams, which was weird. It was even weirder the next week when Wilks pulled Bradford with 4:31 left and the Cardinals trailing a good Bears defense 16-14. Not many coaches would ask their rookie quarterback, in his first NFL action, to immediately conduct a last-minute game-winning drive against a good defense. Rosen did not pull off the win, and that's not his fault. Then came Thursday night, when Wilks left Rosen in the bitter end of a blowout even though the offensive could not block and Rosen hurt his ankle on his last play, which was another Broncos sack.

The Cardinals have a win over the San Francisco 49ers, a game in which they were pretty lucky. They were out-won 447 to 220 and had 10 first downs to 33 for the 49ers. But at least they got a win. It's their only one in a 1-6 start. Four of these six losses have been by double digits.

Story Continues